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Australian Personal Computer: The Lure of Linux

"The buzz around Linux is reminiscent of the stirrings
surrounding the Internet before the dot com crash. In fact, many of
the concepts that fascinated people about the Net also applied to
the operating system: both began as academic projects, neither were
owned by a specific organisation, and they were largely free for
anyone to access and contribute to.

"These factors meant that activity snowballed, building up from
simple projects into a global phenomenon with great promise. And in
both cases, it was also predicted that they'd quietly go away in
favour of proprietary alternatives once the hype died down.

"There's no arguing that some of the heat has gone out of the
Linux market. Companies that had jumped onto the bandwagon, like
Caldera and Corel, stepped away from the platform. Others, such as
Linux desktop company Eazel, disappeared entirely.

"But Linux, like the Internet, isn't about to go away any time
soon. And the serious players in the Linux industry are doing quite
well..."